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Posts Tagged ‘Bell Curve Tentherism’

I have seen multiple cases of Mitt Romney supporters acting very Alinskyite (read Democrat) in their attempts to demonize the strong opposition to Romney. It’s because Romney is a Mormon, they say, (examples can be found in Hot Air comment threads) completely ignoring Romney’s history and actual actions. Members of a Christian Church stand up and say if Romney is the candidate, they’ll stay home and not vote, and immediately the Romney supporters vilify the people, using straw-man ad hominem charges. They also use false dichotomy attacks, but that is tangential here.

Many people are shocked that so many evangelical Christians reject Mormonism as part of the Christian faith. I briefly touched on why Mormonism is decidedly not Christian in an earlier article. And while Mormonism is decidedly not Christian, that does not mean Christians will reject a Mormon for political office due to his or her faith. This site, which is decidedly Christian Conservative, has endorsed Mia Love, who I believe is a Mormon, for Congress due to her political positions. She’s prominent in the side-bar. I have a lot of respect for Glenn Beck, who is very up front with his Mormonism and his Libertarianism (which is not exactly Conservative), because he actually ferrets out the truth regarding the Democrat leadership’s strong ties to Socialists (such as billionaire convicted criminal and NAZI aiding George Soros) and the truth regarding the worldwide efforts to rebuild a Mohammedan caliphate.

When I was in high school, I house-sat for a Mormon family, and for very good reason: the father was a licensed gun dealer. I counted over 200 rifles and shotguns on one wall of their living room. And that was not the entirety of their gun collection. They had various pistols and fully automatic, high rounds-per-minute, large magazine weapons strewn about the house. It was important, even in the low-crime region of the low-crime town, for them to always have someone inside the house as a preventative measure. They were Mormons, and not Christian, although they thought themselves Christian. They were good people, nonetheless. (I expect they still are Mormons and good people, but I have not seen any of them in over 25 years.) The fact they were Mormon did not affect how I treated them. The daughter was my age and a very good friend of mine. Her Mormonism did not affect my decision-making in the least.

It is the same with Mitt Romney. The fact he is Mormon, while meaning he is decidedly not Christian, is not weighed in the balance when I look at him. In fact, modern-day mainstream Mormon beliefs would suggest a morality and value structure which is very much in line with Christian Conservative morality and value structures. It is, rather, Romney’s three positions for each issue and his record as Governor which disqualifies him.

Pushed Romneycare, the evil father of the evil Obamacare, both of which have the individual mandate, requiring the subjects (not citizens for a reason) purchase a product on pain of legal fines. To this day, Romney — in mock-worthy fashion — declares the individual mandate and Romneycare to be Conservative.

Pushed an anti-Catholic (who are we kidding? It’s anti-Christian!) mandate within Romneycare, the same that we have found out is in Obamacare, thanks to Sebelius.

Increased anti-Second Amendment actions by Massachusetts, in part by dramatically increasing fees and regulations on gun buyers and owners.

As Republican candidate for President over the past four to six years, Romney has also advocated a VAT tax on top of all the other taxes we are already paying. He (and more importantly his wrecking crew) has viciously and falsely attacked all his Republican adversaries in ways only Alinskyites would love, by use of intentional lies, intentional hiding of the truth, and other methods. Romney is anti-Second, anti-Christian, anti-Life, anti-Liberty, anti-Constitution, anti-Conservative.

Romney cloaks his actions in the Tenth Amendment, which you can read in its entirety in my side-bar or find by following my link to the US Constitution, also in my side-bar. Romney is no Tenther. In any way. Unlike Rick Perry, who is a Bell Curve Tenther (not a real Tenther), Romney is only borrowing the mantle for his own political expediency.

Mitt Romney seems to be experiencing a death-by-a-thousand cuts, many of them made possible by the copious video/documentary record of his 1994 challenge to Ted Kennedy. It’s Romney’s misfortune that outlets like C-SPAN are digitizing and making available to the public the footage from back then — because back then Romney was running to the left, not to the right. Today’s wince-inducing video clip (if you’re a Romney staffer, that is) is this NECN report from 2002 in which Romney brags, “I’m not a partisan Republican. I’m someone that is moderate, and my views are progressive”:

So, no, the Christian Conservative rejection of Romney has absolutely nothing to do with his Mormonism. In fact, much of what Romney pushed while Governor of Massachusetts was in direct violation of his Mormonism. The Christian Conservative rejection of Romney has everything to do with his anti-Constitutional anti-Christian Liberalism. The Christian Conservative position of the above-mentioned Church members who declared they’d stay home and not vote for Romney is partially supported here. I will not vote for a pro-abort, anti-second, anti-tenther “Progressive” such as Romney, ever. But I will vote down-ticket. What saved McCain in 2008, as far as I’m concerned is Palin. I voted for Palin and not for McCain. Romney will get no such saving grace. Period.

And it has nothing to do with his Mormon faith, which he has already rejected as Governor.

Matt Lewis says he’s improving on this issue. I guess, but that’s mainly because after you’ve tried to win over voters by calling them heartless, there’s really nowhere to go but up.

I’m not so sure. I think Rick Perry is, at best, going sideways and not up. Allahpundit goes on to quote MSNBC.

“We have, for decades, had a federal government that has absolutely failed in its constitutional duty to defend our border,” Perry said.

“I’m a governor. I don’t have the pleasure of standing on the stage and criticizing. I have to deal with these issues,” he later added.

Perry continued, “In 2001, we had this choice: Are we going to kick these children over to the curb and say you cannot have access to college? Because the fact of the matter is there’s no way they could pay the out-of-state tuition. And are we going to have them on the government dole over here because they’re not educated? Or are we going to have them in our institutions of higher learning, paying in state tuition, pursuing citizenship?”

How about we quit enabling illegal aliens in their illegal activities? Ever think of that, Governor Perry? Allahpundit notes Rick Perry opposes E-Verify, his wife has framed the question of either tuition subsidies or welfare payments — to illegals — a Left-wing Big Government false dichotomy fallacy, not only do illegals get in-state tuition subsidies (paid for by the tax-payers) but also tax-payer funded financial aid.

And that Left-wing Big Government false dichotomy fallacy? How about we don’t subsidize the education of illegal aliens? How about we don’t give tax-payer funded Welfare to illegal aliens? How about we don’t allow businesses to hire illegal aliens? Do you know what that would do? It would save the tax-payers lots of money and it would stop enabling the illegal aliens and their illegal behavior. That would be the Small Government Conservative approach, and that would encourage the illegal aliens to return home.

Go back just 10 days — before the Orlando debate, before the Florida straw poll — and remember how Perry was the unstoppable juggernaut, the bandwagon everyone was going to ride to glory.

And now it’s over. Completely and irretrievably over. How over is it? Mitt Romney is mocking Perry as a RINO sellout[.]

When even Flip Flopney tags you for being clearly to the Left of the Conservative base, you know you done a bad thing. Seriously Rick, stop digging. Put that shovel down and don’t pick it back up again.

Catch A Falling Star

As all the politically aware know, there was a Republican Presidential debate down in Florida yesterday. And the top Republican announced candidates were there. And consensus has it: Rick Perry flopped once again.

The cringe-worthiest moment, by a hair, was when Perry botched what should have been his most potent attack on Mitt Romney’s chronic flip-flopping. As I noted on Twitter when it happened, any random high schooler at the CPAC conference in Washington could have done better than this.

If this is how Perry’s going to take Obama on in debates, we’re in trouble. Someone inject him with some Red Bull and a dash of Herman Cain’s personality.
…
Transcript:

PERRY: “I think Americans just don’t know sometimes which Mitt Romney they’re dealing with. Is it the Mitt Romney that was on the side of…against…the Second Amendment before he was for the Second Amendment…was it was..before he was before these social programs, uh, from the standpoint he was standing, uh, for Roe vs. Wade before he was against Roe, uh, Roe vs. Wade…uh…he was…uh for Race To The Top…

Uh…[pause]…he’s for Obamacare and now he’s against it…I mean, we’ll wait until tomorrow and, and, and wait to see which Mitt Romney we’re really talking to…

As I commented last night on Twitter, Rick Perry has begun to remind me of the Minnesota Vikings in these debates. He starts off strong and runs up a lead in the first half, starts coasting, and then eventually turns the ball over repeatedly and loses. For the third debate in a row, Perry lost steam in the second half, lost focus — and in this case lost the ability to put together a coherent sentence in an attack that was clearly rehearsed. Perry leaped at the chance to attack Romney as a flip-flopper, which shouldn’t be that hard to do, and … well, see for yourself:

…
Some might argue that debates don’t prove anything about how a candidate will function as President, but that’s not entirely true. First, one has to win the election, and offering incoherent ramblings on television is no way to do that. Second, voters have to have confidence in a candidate’s abilities to win their support, and anyone watching this part of the debate had to be wondering whether Perry is really up to the task of debating Barack Obama, or dealing with the media in a press conference, which is most certainly part of the job.

I’d expect Perry’s numbers to soften up after this performance. And with that comes an opening for a late arrival into the race, especially if Romney’s numbers don’t move upward.

Perry looked like a loser last night: “Cringeworthy.” We’ll get the results Saturday of a Republican straw poll in Florida, and if Perry doesn’t win that, the “Anybody But Romney” vote may start looking around for another horse to ride.

Seriously, um, dude, you gotta … I mean if you’re … spit it out, dude! If Rick Perry were Ricki Perry the female governor of Texas, the mainstream media would be asking “Are you ditzy?” But since he’s a man…

If that was Perry’s most cringeworthy portion of the debate, there is another portion where Perry turned the tractor beam into a repulsor beam (Star Trek TNG), and that was his illegal immigration fiasco.

Perry lost big in his continued defense of DREAM Act illegal alien student preferences. Frank Luntz’s focus group on Sean Hannity’s show after the debate unanimously panned Perry on immigration and especially took umbrage at his condescending line about critics not having a “heart.” Which follows on his similarly-toned line from the last debate about how Republicans should care about students no matter what their last names sound like.

Rick Perry may have forfeited his lead in the Republican presidential field during Thursday night’s debate in Orlando when he declared that those who oppose subsidizing college education for illegal immigrants are heartless.

“If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they have been brought there by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart,” Perry said, after being criticized by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for a Texas policy providing in-state tuition for illegals.

Romney, who vetoed a similar tuition bill in Massachusetts, pointed out that this amounts to a $22,000-a-year discount for illegal aliens, as compared to the tuition that would be paid by U.S. students from the other 49 states attending universities in Texas. “That doesn’t make sense to me,” Romney said.

It didn’t make sense to former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum either. “You’re sort of making this leap that unless… the taxpayers subsidize it, [immigrants] won’t be able to go [to college].… The point is, why are we subsidizing it?… And why should they be given preferential treatment as an illegal in this country?” . . .

Perry’s support for Texas DREAM need not cost him the support of those who are strongly opposed to amnesty for illegal immigrants or who strongly support — as Perry puts it — “more boots on the ground” to secure our borders. In other words, Perry should reassure voters he’s not squishy on border security nor does he favor amnesty for illegals — and deflect attention from the Texas DREAM Act as much as possible, not call attention to it with self-righteous pronouncements.

I have a different piece of advice for Perry: Stop alienating most of the voters and the vast, vast majority of Republicans and TEA Partiers. As I noted in my article Numbers Democrats Don’t Want You To See (and apparently neither does Rick Perry):

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey [August 23, 2011] shows that only 32% of Likely U.S. Voters believe children of parents in this country illegally should be allowed to attend public school here. Fifty-three percent (53%) do not believe those young illegal immigrants should be allowed to attend public school.
…
Seventy-two percent (72%) of voters believe parents should be required to prove they are legal residents of the United States when registering their child for public school. Twenty-one percent (21%) oppose such a requirement.

Several states have made illegal immigrants eligible for lower in-state tuition at colleges and universities, but 81% of voters oppose such a move in their state. Just 12% think illegal immigrants should be eligible for these tuition breaks in their home state. Opposition to allowing illegal immigrants to be eligible for in-state tuition is slightly stronger than it was back in October 2007.

The vast majority of voters are in direct opposition to the Democrats’ position on educating illegals, but again, the Democrats don’t want the voters to know they are in such a vast majority while the Democrat leadership is holding the extremist position. This issue also definitely hurts Governor Perry as he stands alongside the Democrats (in a “me, too” position) in contradiction to the vast majority of the public.

So, Rick Perry’s “heartless” lashing out was lashing out at 81 percent of American voters. Not a good way to win anyone’s vote. But there’s yet another piece in the chain of events in Perry’s debate collapse. Michelle Malkin provides evidence that Rick Perry’s Liberal tactic anecdotal heart-string pull for his unilateral Big Government crony capitalist “pay to play” Gardasil Executive Order was a case of, errr, erroneous memory.

As I wrote in my Sarah Palin Suddenly Electable article, much of Palin’s improving polling stems from other Republicans flaming out and people taking a second look at Sarah Palin. I also explained in The Palin Paradox if one makes the premise of Palin knowing she’s running but waiting for the right moment to run, Perry’s mid-August entry into the race — after he promised his Texas voters he wouldn’t — pushed Palin’s timeline back. With Perry’s debate implosion the last couple debates, I believe Perry just pushed Palin’s timeline back forward again.

I’m coming to hate Perry Bots, just because they are so freaking wed to spreading memes– dumb ones, at that! It’s not to Ronulan levels of annoying, yet, but cut it out! You’re not doing him any good.

Same way that not all Ron Paul supporters are the annoying, brainless sort of Ron Paul supporter, not all Rick Perry supporters are these annoying cut-and-paste artists who haven’t got enough imagination to even rephrase the freaking arguments. I’d estimate that they’re less than one in ten, actually– the Ron Paul supporter thing is highly biased by the way that folks who agree with ‘im on some points don’t want to be associated with the nutjobs. If this can’t be stopped, Perry is going to face similar problems. Heck, for all I know, that’s part of someone’s plan. Heaven knows that dumber plans have been implemented, and probably even been successful.

Focusing on the mandated vaccination for an STD for school girls, I’ll list off a few, with responses:
“It had an opt-out, it’s not really a mandate.”
That opt-out is exactly the same as for every other mandatory vaccine in Texas. You ask the gov’t to send you the form, fill it out, get it notarized and then you get permission to not be vaccinated with whatever for two years. (In theory, at least.)

“It’s horrible that Bachmann is giving support to the anti-vaccine movement!”
Possibly the locations I’m most familiar with– Seattle, Portland and SoCal– messes with the sampling I have in this, but none of the folks I know who are “anti-vaccine” are feeling validated by anything a Republican would say, because THEY ARE LIBERALS. The same sort of folks who think “organic” means “healthier” and “more nutritious.”

“It’s OK, Perry was just making it so the insurance companies would pay for the vaccine.”
Oh, that’s a lovely defense of someone going for the Republican nomination: his goal wasn’t to abuse his power and interfere with parental rights by mandating a new STD drug on little girls from a company that gave him money and hired his friend– he was just trying to force a private company to pay for something he personally thought was a good idea.

“Perry said he messed up/is sorry/wouldn’t do it that way again/etc.”
Where? Please, seriously, I’ve asked for folks to give a link to exactly what he actually said, and nobody will do it– there is a WORLD of difference between him saying “that looked really bad,” “I shouldn’t have used an executive order,” “I should have gone with an opt-in instead of an opt-out” or “I would not do something like that again.” Or even, “yeah, I was an utter idiot with my rhetoric on that…sorry.” (The “pro-life” justification, the various polio claims, etc.)

“Watch this video with an interview of people who know someone who died of cervical cancer!”
Wow! Women dying is a bad thing– I had no idea! I am now utterly on the side of government ordered everything that someone claims could save a few in a hundred thousand lives, if someone can find an emotional argument for it, and to heck with any consideration for personal rights!

“You just hate science/are ignorant/are anti-medicine!”
No, you ad hominem slinging idiot; there’s no shortage of medical professionals who also did not think it was a great idea. Even the “preventing cancer” thing isn’t open-shut, even with those who go from “associated with” into “causes.” While you’re at it, could you pleaseeducate yourself on HPV, and stop spreading flat misinformation? At least figure out a bit about the various types, and pay attention to the stats that folks throw around…. While I’m dreaming about people paying attention to the facts, stop citing Wikipedia. It’s a handy jump-off point, but it’s worthless on anything where there’s debate precisely because it’s a wiki.

Can we please agree to leave that in the capable hands of the Democrats and mainstream media (which are one and the same)? Let’s have our differences of opinion and let’s base those differences of opinion on facts about our various candidates’ positions and records. But let’s cut out the trash talk and leave that to the Leftists and mainstream media (which are one and the same).

I am not a Rick Perry supporter. I am a Sarah Palin supporter. And since Truth Before Dishonor is mine, Truth Before Dishonor has already endorsed Sarah Palin for President. But Dana Pico, an author here, has endorsed Rick Perry on this very site. And I very clearly said then that I don’t need the trashing of Rick Perry or their supporters in that thread. I gave my opinion on things I don’t like but also gave my opinion on things I do like about my third choice. And I based it on historical record.

Over at Hot Air, yesterday’s Quotes of the Day article was about Rick Perry’s truthful statement that Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme and the fact he won’t back down from that truthful statement. But like all long comment threads, it devolved into something else. And I want to get past the lamest of circular firing squad malignings and get to the phony math that one commenter in particular used in his poorly thought out maligning of Governor Perry’s record.

As of 8/31/01 (the end of the 2001 fiscal year, the last for which George W. Bush exercised budgetary authority), outstanding debt of the State of Texas totaled $12.561 billion.

Below is a summary of outstanding debt at the end of each fiscal year under Perry’s authority.

The effect of the 2001 amendment allowing the DOT to issue debt was seen in the 18% increase in the State’s debt between 2001 and 2002. However, DOT debt hardly accounts for the 184.2% total increase in the State’s debt during Perry’s governorship.

Let’s start with some basic math, shall we? A percentage increase in anything over 10 years does not break down into 1/10th of the percentage increase per year. The basic Law of Compounding covers that, so all the “per year” bits are very much wrong. Next up, some basic algebra. You cannot add unlike items. 2a + 3b =! 5ab. Growth in “inflation” plus growth in “people” does not equal growth in “inflation people”. Again, dealing with that math problem, the Law of Compounding comes into play. Growth in inflation plus growth in people plus growth in inflation with the people growth will come closer to the truth.

Now for some “inflation” talk. Back when Carter (the worst President since the 1940s until Obama surpassed him and became the worst President ever) was President, food and energy were part of the metric in determining inflation. Since then, those two items — which increase in cost much faster than the rate of inflation — were removed from the official inflation rate, thereby artifically lowering the actual inflation rate. That right there puts a hammerlock on Budget v Inflation. But let’s continue. Healthcare expenses always increase faster than inflation. And State Budgets must account for Medicaid (which is a healthcare expense that always increases faster than inflation), a Federally mandated State expense. Education expenses increase much faster than inflation. And State Budgets must account for education expenses. And States use energy, which increases faster than inflation. All of these points, compounded by population growth, illegal immigrant population growth, the Law of Compounding, drive a rather large hole in Budget v Inflation.

Now, Steebo77 likely bungled his way into his failed-math maligning of Rick Perry, but that would make him an unwilling failed-math willing maligner. I have said before, and I continue to believe, Rick Perry is a Big State Government Bell Curve Tenther, but I will not use multiple-stage bad math in an attempt to destroy Rick Perry, a man who would do a lot to help the US recover from the Socialism of today’s Democrat Party machine and Ruling Class, Inside-The-Beltway Republicans.

Once again, Mitt Romney was questioned about his RomneyCare. And once again, Mitt Romney tried to cover up his Big Government power-grab with the Tenth Amendment. Of course, Romney is using a Bell Curve dispensation of the Tenth Amendment, meaning a power-grab for Statists at the State level. But that’s not the meaning or goal behind the Tenth Amendment. The true goal and meaning of the Tenth Amendment is the Hyperbolic Curve dispensation. And once a Bell Curve “Tenther” gets into the Federal government, all pretenses at the Tenth Amendment will fall by the wayside. Because whatever issue will become too critical|severe|important to leave to the States. The Fed will “have to take power” away from the States.

The nut Ron Paul has decided that Iran should be able to build a nuclear arsenal, which would necessarily put Israel’s existence in jeopardy, to say nothing of millions of innocent lives in the Middle East.

Tim Pawlenty attacked Michele Bachmann but demurred in regard to Mitt Romney. But Michele Bachmann was ready and torched Tim Pawlenty. Hot Air has video of part of the Bachmann/T-Paw kerfuffle via Mediaite. (Since it is not a YouTube video, I cannot reproduce it here.) T-Paw tried that Leftist attack that Bachmann hasn’t succeeded in anything in Congress. By that metric, T-Paw would’ve told GEN Douglas MacArthur to go back to the States and retire after the Philippines fell to the far superior Japanese Army and Navy — despite the fact MacArthur’s extended delaying tactics were very crucial to the fledgling US war effort. And Bachmann hit back with T-Paw’s record of favoring Cap-and-Trade among other Big Government boondoggles while T-Paw was Governor. But Bachmann apparently left the stage during every commercial break. Bad form, that.

Newt Gingrich is asked about his Global Warming PSA with Nancy Pelosi. Newt’s response to someone asking a specific question about his record? He don’t want nobody hitting him with “gotcha” questions like that. Heaven forbid anyone ask him about his NY-23 endorsement of Leftist Republican DeDe Scazzafava, who in turn dropped out and endorsed the Democrat! Newt did hit Obama over the head on illegal immigration, so there’s that.

And there were some other also-rans on the stage as well.

My own take:
Bachmann won a few votes and lost a few votes, in effect, a wash.
T-Paw solidified his position as a second-tier candidate, to his detriment.
Ron Paul is still an absolute nut that cannot win the Republican nomination.
Mitt Romney is the strongest current squish candidate in a cycle where a strong Conservative is required.
If Newt Gingrich were a branding iron for the Rocking Circle R Ranch, he would have so many cold, dead spots that he would produce a smiley face instead of the Rocking Circle R brand.

With Perry, Palin, Guiliani on the outside possibly getting in, the Conservatives who were at the debate could quickly become also-rans and Romney could face a strong challenge from another strong squish.

Truth Before Dishonor is a Tenth Amendment/Tenth Commandment site. The more in line with the Tenth Amendment and the Tenth Commandment one is, the more Conservative one will necessarily be. The reverse is also true. The more one rejects the Tenth Amendment and the more one rejects the Tenth Commandment, the more Liberal/Progressive/Socialist one will necessarily be.

Looking at Liberal, Progressive, Socialist, etc, arguments, I suspect in the range of 90 percent of all their arguments will run counter to the Tenth Amendment, the Tenth Commandment, or both.

There are two forms of Constitutional Tenther.

There is the Bell Curve Tenther, who believes the most power is in the hands of State governments, giving less power to both the Federal government and the Individual. This could also be considered a Letter of the Law Tenther. An example of such a position is Mitt Romney’s position on RomneyCare. It is okay for a State to mandate all its residents purchase a product but it is Unconstitutional for the Federal government to mandate it.

There is the Hyperbolic Curve Tenther of the form “x = 1/y (where both x and y are greater than zero)”. This could also be considered a Spirit of the Law Tenther. The further away from the individual the government is, the less authority over the individual the government should have. And the closer to the individual the government is, the more authority it should have, but the most authority should always reside with the individual and not with any level of government.

The vast majority of Bell Curve Tenthers are most likely found within State governments. Once a Bell Curve Tenther moves into the Federal government, it is highly likely such a Tenther will drop all pretenses and become the full-blown Statist the person actually is, because Bell Curve Tentherism is still a Big Government position. It’s just the location of the government that is in question. As such, the only true Tentherism is Hyperbolic Curve Tentherism.

And Truth Before Dishonor is a Hyperbolic Curve Constitutional Tenther site as well as a Biblical Tenther site.

*Originally posted on Texas Tenther, which I am folding back into Truth Before Dishonor.